Following this week’s revelations that Apple SVP of Marketing Phil Schiller is unhappy with the direction of the company’s advertising and agency, and that Apple is considering hiring as many as four new digital agencies to further enhance its advertising efforts, it seems the company has added a formidable new member to its marketing team.

Ad Age reports that Apple has hired Karl Heiselman, who is currently the CEO of the Wolff Olins branding agency. Heiselman will take on an undisclosed role in the company’s marketing arm next month, he confirmed. This won’t be the executive’s first time in Cupertino. Heiselman previously worked for Apple in the ’90s as a design contractor.

At Wolff Olins, Heiselman headed up numerous high tech and high profile branding efforts including Product (RED) for Bono, the 2012 Olympics for London (right) and numerous Microsoft campaigns including the ill-fated Kin. The company also churned out “re-invention” for brands such as Aol, Sony, Skype, Belkin and Firefox…

Apple’s recent hiring spree and Schiller’s testimony during the Samsung patent trial both point to a company struggling to solidify its identity in an ever-growing sea of look-alike competitors. Perhaps Heiselman’s branding expertise will help set the company back on the right path.

Wow, I was literally just opening up this page from my RSS reader to make the same comment. I’ve been an Apple fan for a long time now. I’ve owned every iPhone (even the original at $600), 3 Mac Minis, 1 Mac Book, 2 MacBook Pro’s, every iPad (except the mini retina), and a Mac Pro. I’ve flamed in forums when it seemed when people haven’t given them what I would deem a fair chance over the years and I was all about revenge and payback and Samsung getting what they deserve for their slimy copying ways. All that to say I’m about as big of a fan as you can get; heck I even bought several friends ‘onesees’ for their new babies from the actual Apple store in Cupertino. Even as a huge fan there comes a point where you have to wonder if all the money, effort, and fiery motivation spent on lawsuits and marketing could actually just be spent on making better products and really come up with new things to wow their customers again?

I mean sure, every year there’s a new iPhone and it’s pretty cool but it seems every year other than the 1 neat added feature (or gimmick depending on your usage and/or experience) like Siri, or the fingerprint reader it seems they fall further and further behind the competition in what they offer for the money. However they stay content to remain smug because in their minds they produce the best products no matter what the products they actually release contains. Case in point, all indications are pointing to a 389ppi screen which means a resolution of somewhere around 1600×966. Now I know these are just rumors but looking at all previous released phones by Apple, this odd non-standards based resolution seems to be par the course. Why not give us 1080P for a $700 phone? The competition gives us 1080P for $500 phones so… where’s the disconnect? But but but, the build quality and user experience make up for the price we pay for lower specs right? Not so fast. According to some reports the current version of iOS crashes more than the current version of Android. Additionally HTC uses an all metal almost unibody like design with a big beautiful screen, Full-HD 1080P, resolution, great colour reproduction and tremendous battery life; however it costs slightly less than the iPhone 5S and presumably the iPhone 6 as well. Maybe I’m just venting and ranting here but at times I feel like Apple shafts us just because they can and having someone piss in your cereal and tell them it’s somehow better for you than milk get’s old after a while.